Mutual attacks - where do they fight?

[Firebreath]

Thanks for helping me clear up the following:

If two armies attack each other - they (presumably) can't fight in the middle, but rather on the land of one, or on the land of the other - so how is this decided?

If one of the armies is a flying only army, does this affect things? Does the flying army engage the other attacking army, or does it fly over and attack the province where the other army came from, leaving the other army to attack your province? And: what if the flying army is flying over an attacking enemy army - onto a province beyond the attacking enemy army, does it ignore the attacking enemy and fly straight over onto its destination?

Finally, it seems that ocassionaly it is possible to send very small armies against a much bigger army - and so block them (stopping them from attacking you by attacking them instead) - has anyone else experienced this?

[Norfleet]

The armies in question tend to end up fighting whereever is least useful for you. If you're sending two armies from two provinces to attack one province, you will always wind up with two battles: One where the enemy attacks one of your armies, and one where your other army, missing the first army, attacks the enemy province alone. There's other such examples. I'm pretty sure the game is programmed to detect such things and attempt to penalize you.

[rabelais]

I wish Norfleet were kidding, but it's ALL TRUE!

Makes avoiding getting retreat killed on drive-bys slightly tricky.


Rabe the Passive Aggressive Tactical Weenie

[Firebreath]

Ahh, and here I thought Norfleet was joking

Thanks then.

But what about the main question: where do two (normal) armies meet if they attack each other? (ignoring extraneous armies moving in to converge on the battle)

[Norfleet]

It's random unless there are extraneous armies. There may be a slight bias either for or against nation order, but I forget exactly which way, since the reinforcing armies check tends to take precedence.

[Jasper]

Last time I heard the devs weigh in on this was for Dom 1, but I don't think this has changed since.

IIRC armies with reciprical moves have a possibility to either bypass each other, or have one "push" the other back. The larger the armies, the more likely they'll meet, and larger armies are more likely to push.

[Chazar]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
If you're sending two armies from two provinces to attack one province, you will always wind up with two battles: One where the enemy attacks one of your armies, and one where your other army, missing the first army, attacks the enemy province alone.

I doubt that "always": Since I love Caelum, I usually start my attacks from various provinces. Sometimes it works, and sometime it doesnt. The good thing is that if one of your flying armies catches the enemy before he leaves the province, always all of your armies join the battle. If the enemy is moved first, he will only battle against the army residing in the province he attacks.

I guess thats due to the random evaluation of movement: Whichever army is moved first decides where the battle takes place.

One important thing to remember is that movement within friendly provinces is evaluated always before anything else, so defending a province from multiple points always works, regardless whether other armies attack the defenders starting provinces!

[ May 10, 2004, 12:41: Message edited by: Chazar ]

[Tris]

Hmmm...the best way for this to work would be for the fastest strategic army to hit first. Not only does this seem appropriate, but it also means you could do mean things like paralyse a big slow army with raiding attacks from quicker armies.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Chazar:
I doubt that "always": Since I love Caelum, I usually start my attacks from various provinces. Sometimes it works, and sometime it doesnt. The good thing is that if one of your flying armies catches the enemy before he leaves the province, always all of your armies join the battle. If the enemy is moved first, he will only battle against the army residing in the province he attacks.

This works fine if you're attacking from a province that is not being attacked in turn. If you launch from several provinces, including one that is being attacked, the enemy will attack first.

I guess thats due to the random evaluation of movement: Whichever army is moved first decides where the battle takes place.

I don't believe it's truly random. As a programmer myself, I've come to firmly distrust anything that somebody says is "random". If it's random, it's invariably a cover for an amusing, but sadistic behavior that uses the alleged randomness as a screen.

One important thing to remember is that movement within friendly provinces is evaluated always before anything else, so defending a province from multiple points always works, regardless whether other armies attack the defenders starting provinces!

I am aware of this.

[Endoperez]

If only strategic movement would matter, heavy infantry with only one movement would be useless. Defender would just make one commander in every province bordering enemy's army, and attack with them all. As they are faster than the army, they stop the big army to its place...

It could be nice to have strat. move as one of the modifiers.